westmarchsagafandomcom-20200214-history
Mass Combat Player Guide
Elements, Units, and Forces A fighting force is composed of units of troops of a similar type. Units are made of elements, each element representing 10 fighters, 1 vehicle and its crew, or 1 large beast like an elephant, titan, or dragon. Units are rated by their total Troop Strength (TS), their class abilities, special features, and mobility. They also have a cost to raise and a monthly cost to maintain. * Troop Strength reflects how dangerous the unit is in combat. * Class abilities represent general classes of military units. Units with class abilities provide a force commander with more options and can dramatically increase his odds of winning. A force with more TS in a class has class superiority in that class, and gets a superiority bonus to Strategy rolls when that class is relevant. There are many classes: ** Air: Flying units that aid in scouting and most combats. ** Armor: Heavily protected land units that ignore normal melee or ranged attacks. ** Artillery: Units with long ranged, indirect and area fire attack capabilities. Useful in all battles, but more useful in preplanned attacks. ** Cavalry: Fast striking land elements that can outflank or pursue foot units. ** C3I: Long range command, control, and communication elements that provide strategic information. ** Engineering: Miners, sappers and bridging units that provide benefits in sieges or city fighting. ** Fire: Archers and mages who can attack point targets at range. ** Naval: Units that can sustain a fight on or under water. Only useful when fighting on or underwater or during marine assaults. ** Recon: Scouts and raiders that can patrol in front of a fighting force. * Mobility determines how a unit moves. ** Foot: Land-based units that can move 20 miles/day on roads or 10 miles/day off-road. ** Mounted: Land-based units that can move 30 miles/day on roads or 15 miles/day off-road. ** Wheeled: Land-based units that can move 30 miles/day on good roads, 15 miles/day on poor roads, or 5 miles/day off-road. ** Coastal: Water units that can travel 160 miles/day on rivers or within 160 miles of the coast, but can't cross oceans. ** Slow Air: Airborne units that move at 100 miles/day on their own, but are tied to Wheeled logistics forces. * Special features are various special traits. ** All-Weather: Slow Air or Coastal units without this feature only contribute half their TS in bad weather. ** blah blah blah Movement and Scouting A force moves at the speed of its slowest unit. A force may double speed by moving without security (no scouts, poor camps, etc.). It may also attempt a Forced March increase movement speed by 50% by making a successful Administration roll at +3, -1 per day of Forced Marching. Failure causes 5% casualties. As forces approach, force commanders engage in a Quick Contest of Reconnaissance. Each commander rolls the average of Intelligence Analysis and Strategy, adding superiority bonuses for Recon and Air units and other modifiers based on how he is moving. The winner gets initiative and can choose how to engage; victory by a large margin allows for surprise or even ambush. Fighting a Battle Battles are fought in rounds. Each round, the following things happen: # Risk. Unit commanders and important people (ie, PCs) can choose a Risk Modifier for themselves between -3 and +3. Higher risk increases the chance of performing a significant action but also increases the chance of taking damage. # Significant Actions. PCs who are not the force commander may make a Heroism check: 3d6 against 5 + Risk Modifier and other bonuses. A successful roll gives a +1 to the force commander's strategy roll. # Choose Battle Strategy. Each force commander selects a general battle strategy, such as All-Out Attack or Skirmish. Battle strategies give modifiers to the Strategy roll and can affect how casualties are taken. # Quick Contest of Strategy. Each force commander rolls Strategy with modifiers for relative Troop Strength, his Risk Modifier, other PC's significant actions, battle strategy, class superiority in appropriate classes, and other factors. The winner of the contest wins that round and takes less casualties than the loser and may get other benefits, depending on the strategies chosen. # Misfortunes of War. Force commanders and PCs each need to make a Misfortunes of War roll: 3d6 on a target number based on their side's casualties modified by their risk value. "Success" on the roll causes 2d6-1 HP of injury. If a force commander is knocked unconscious or killed, things generally go badly for his side. # Victory? The battle continues until at least one side takes 100% casualties, successfully executes a Fighting Withdrawal, or Retreats. The winning side can pursue to inflict more losses or hold the field to limit its own casualties. Modifiers to Battle Strategy Rolls ** Defense Bonuses: A force using a defense strategy gets a bonus for the terrain, from +1 for Plains to +8 or more for a castle or fortress. ** Class superiority: +1 for a 2:1 advantage in a relevant class, +2 for a 3:1 advantage, and +3 for a 5:1 advantage. ** Relative Troop Strength: +2 for a 1.5:1 advantage in relative TS, with increasing bonuses with more relative TS to a maximum of +20 at 50:1 odds. ** Position Bonus: Attacking troops can earn a Position Bonus by winning battle rounds. It represents maneuver and positional advantages. ** Casualties: Every 5% casualties taken in previous battle rounds gives a -1 penalty to Strategy. Many troops are less effective under certain conditions. For example, troops without the Night ability halve their effective TS when fighting at Night, while troops without Air, Naval or Marine abilities can't contribute at all to Naval combat. Tables The GM can provide Table of the relevant stuff when actually playing the game.